Mark Taylor asks captains to back spinners

Melbourne, Nov 29 (IANS) Former Australian captain Mark Taylor feels a concerted effort is needed to revive the art of spin in the country and has asked the first-class teams to show more faith in their spinners.”Captains at all levels need to try wherever possible to encourage their spinners,” Taylor was quoted as saying in The Australian.

“That does not mean you leave them on to the detriment of the team. But if you keep taking them off every time they get hit for a boundary, it is not going to help anyone.

“We need more daring captains, but also more understanding captains.”

Taylor said the captains should embrace the challenge of setting attacking and inventive fields for their spinners.

“It’s definitely much more fun (captaining to spinners). Even playing for NSW (New South Wales), I really enjoyed it as a captain.

“With the fast bowlers, it’s often little more than taking your third slip out and putting them in the covers. But with the spinners you can change all sorts of things.

“You can have more men around the bat. You can have fewer men around the bat. There are many more options available to the captain than there are with the fast men.”